Editor -- The true central issue of this conflict stems from the 53- year refusal on the part of Palestinians (including Yasser Arafat) and many neighboring Arabs to accept Israel's right to exist, and their sworn duty to eliminate the state of Israel. Apparently, Akio Tanaka (Letters, Dec. 25) missed The Chronicle article about the Palestinian textbooks that conveniently omit Israel on any maps and preach that "martyrdom" achieved through suicide bombings is honorable.

Until the Palestinians accept the existence of Israel and stop teaching their children that it's not just OK but some kind of perverse moral duty to blow up Jews and destroy Israel, there really isn't a whole lot of hope for peace there. Sadly.

JEFF SOBUL

Oakland

PATH TO DESTRUCTION

Editor -- Yossi Amrani (Open Forum, Dec. 24) can be forgiven for being disingenuous. It's his job. He represents the Israeli administration of Ariel Sharon.

The only paths that Israel is building are the ones on confiscated Palestinian land leading to Israeli settlements, also built on confiscated Palestinian land. The Palestinians are not allowed to use those roads, of course, and increasingly not even their own, as villages and towns are completely blockaded for months at a time.

Amrani is asking the Palestinians not to resist in any way while their cities and towns become free-fire zones for the Israeli military to hunt down and assassinate whomever they want to eliminate, dynamite the houses of the families of suspects, bulldoze their fields and orchards, and so on.

Israel's policy is to clear the land of stones and Arabs, turning historical Palestine into Israel and leaving the Palestinians with nothing at all. It's known as ethnic cleansing. If Sharon wants peace, let him try to discourage settlement activity instead of subsidizing it. What does it cost to try?

PAUL LARUDEE

Richmond

NO BLANK CHECKS

Editor -- I commend your editorial ("Isolating Arafat," Dec. 14) that takes a stand against a blank check for Israel to sponsor violence and more brutality to an occupied people. You wrote:

"The $2.8 billion in annual U.S. military and economic aid to Israel must not be a blank check. Israel has a right to defend itself, but the Bush administration must make it clear to Sharon that he should pull back his war machine, stop undermining Arafat and immediately resume negotiations toward a comprehensive peace."

A LIABILITY

Editor -- Thank you for your courageous editorial. The only thing Israel manages to do with the money and weapons we send it is to create more enemies and hatred with its discriminatory policies and continued military occupation and confiscation of Palestinian territory. Israel has become nothing but a financial and political liability to the United States, causing the Muslim world to hate us for our blind and hypocritical support of Israel's expansionist goals.

OMAR JABARA

Arvada, Colo.

CHRISTIANS SUFFER

It brings home the painful hardships faced by Palestinian Christians who, just like Palestinian Muslims, have seen every aspect of their lives devastated by the brutality of occupation. At this time when people around the world celebrate Christmas with messages of love and peace, the celebrations of the inhabitants of Bethlehem, the birth place of Jesus Christ, are marred by the destructive powers of Israeli terror and oppression. It is indeed a very sad Christmas in the Holy Land and it is tragic that our tax dollars help make it that way.

MOUNIA BRYANT

Laurel, Md.

BLAME ARAFAT

Editor -- The Middle East article by Rania Awwad (Insight, Dec. 23) is a shameful piece of propaganda -- not only for what it says -- but for what it leaves out. Bethlehem would have been filled with tourists this Christmas and last, had Arafat not chosen the disastrous path of terror and violence following the peace negotiations at Camp David and at Taba.

In Bethlehem, as in Beit Jalla and other places, Palestinian gunmen shoot from churches and residential areas, terrorizing the inhabitants and hoping that an Israeli response will elicit international condemnation. It should be clear by now that no other country in the world would exercise the patience and the restraint that Israel has shown in the face of daily provocations, including the suicide bombing of its citizens. The only path to peace is negotiation, which Arafat has rejected again and again. Isn't it time to stop the violence to seriously seek peace?